Monday, November 21, 2016

Changing Time

Time Change!

by

Mark Hayter

How are you
adjusting to the time change? Right now we’re on normal time… or standard time.
Last Sunday, the sun began rising an hour earlier, and setting an hour earlier
in the evening. If that’s not spooky, I don’t know what is.

War is what ultimately led to a
national Daylight Saving Time program. – By the way, it’s wrong to call it
Savings Time. Few politicians know that, but the few who do blame the Liberal
Media for pluralizing “Saving.”

Originally, we called Saving Time, “War Time,”
because it was only adopted during the period of both World Wars. After WWII, states
and cities didn’t know whether they should change back to the old time or not,
so cities decided to do whatever they wanted. Grandmas all across the nation
had no idea what time their children and grandchildren would arrive at
Thanksgiving. Family gatherings got confusing as all get out. Lives were
probably lost.

In 1966, Congress grabbed the bear
by the horns and jumped into action. That was back when Congress actually took
on a little bit of responsibility. Congress actually passed a law adopting Daily
Saving Time during the period between the second Sunday in March and the first
Sunday in November.

Today, citizens of all states are now
off of DST and back on to Standard Time. Of course, Arizona (except for the Navahos in the
Northeastern part of the state) never left standard time. They decided to pooh
pooh commonality and put the kibosh on DST. The Navahos apparently decided to
pooh pooh Arizona.

I know what you’re thinking. How
can we literally save time by moving the clock back an hour? We can’t! Yes,
there’s a Biblical account of God making the sun and moon stand still for
almost a whole day just so the Israelites would have enough daylight to finish
slaughtering the Amorites. In order to do that, God had to defy the laws of
physics to keep the earth, moon and a bunch of the planets from plummeting into
the sun. Now that’s, like, almost impossible to do.

No, we’re just toying with the
clock in an attempt to save energy by giving ourselves an hour more daylight during
waking hours. The theory is, by getting out of bed when the sun is out in the
spring, summer and fall, we’ll likely turn on fewer lights. if get out of bed
when the sun is already up.

The question is, does it work? Is my monthly electric bill lower during the
eight or so months of DST than it is during Central Standard Time? The answer
is yes… and no. Someone has actually done the research. Several someones. I’m
not joking.

Seems our monthly light bills do go
down about ½ percent during DST. However, our overall energy usage increases in
most areas. That’s because of the energy used by people getting up earlier and
having to cool and warm their houses more than they might normally.

I’m the exception to that
likelihood. I bump the thermostat down at night because I prefer sleeping cool.
By doing this I increase the size of my environmental footprint. Fortunately, I
have an excuse. Hey, I’m not a complete jerk. During my younger years back in Pasadena, the Hayters did
a lot of sweating while sleeping, as did the vast majority of people on the
planet.

Like most of the people on the
planet, if I have a chance to sleep in a cool room, I will take advantage of
the opportunity. God has now afforded me the chance to sleep in a cool
environment, so I grasp the blessing using all of which I can grasp. Should I
ever become less blessed, I’ll go back to the night sweats.

It’s called adapting. It’s not
easy, but I can do it. I believe it was Bob Seger who said, “I wish I didn’t
know now what I didn’t know then.” -- Obviously, that doesn’t apply to anything
here, but I consider it one of the greatest lines in songdom.

So, there we have it. From now until
near-spring we’ll experience a little brighter mornings and darker evenings. As
soon as the second Sunday in March rolls around we’ll again spring forward into
Daylight Savings time. Sounds crazy as all get out doesn’t it? Regardless, I
can’t see Congress changing it in this century. You ask me, it’s the Liberal
Media behind all this.

For whatever it’s worth, we must
all admit that time is a moving thing, and “…if I could make it stay, this hour
of love we share would always be, there’d be no coming day to shine a morning
light, to make us realize our night is over.“ Sorry.

These lyrics are from a song called
“It’s Over,”written and sung by Jimmie
Rodgers. It first came out in 1966… the same year we adopted Daylight Saving
Time. – Wow! Time is both moving and coincidental. – Well, I hope you’re happy.
I’ve just used up my extra hour. --Next
time.